All Them Furrin Quotations

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

I've got a request. Would all the owners of those Latin and other non-English quotes kindly post translations for those of us who took other languages?

I never know if I should laugh or nod my head and look wise. (difficult, that)

Please, please, pretty please, enlighten the darkness of my mind with the brilliance of your wit(s).

[dai bread]

Per ardua ad exasperatum.
Through hard work to exasperation. Not really Latin though.
Omnia me Graeci est.
It's all Greek to me. That IS Latin, though fairly obvious really.

Somebody once wrote a fairly long paragraph in "Latin", concerning the hospitality of someone's household, but I can only remember a little of it: "fortis arare placeto restat". Examine it carefully, and you'll get the drift.

You can have a lot of fun with "translations". One of the best books on the subject is "Fractured French", that I've referred to before. "Tant pis, tant mieux" = "My aunt feels much better after making a telphone call." The normal meaning is "so much the better", so you see the "fractured" meaning is based firmly in English, not French.

<small>[ 08-16-2003, 08:20 PM: Message edited by: dai bread ]</small>

[Shapley]

There are translation services available for free at various sites on the internet. It's always fun to traslate a quote, and then translate it back, and see what has become of it.

V/R
Shapley

[Angie Parkes]

This is probably apochryphal, but when I was studying human information processing (when the earth's crust was still cooling) my class was told of Russian-English-Russian translation machine that took "The flesh is willing but the spirit is weak" and turned it into "The vodka's fine but the meat's gone off."

[OperaTenor]

Which reminds me of the English subtitling of the Japanese dubbed version of Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail, where the Holy Grail becomes the Holy Sake Cup.

[Shapley]

I tried a free translation on the web. I entered the quote from Yoda in Star Wars episode V: "Do or do not, there is no try."

I first translated it to German: "Macht oder macht nicht, es keinen Versuch gibt."

I then translated it back to English: "Power or makes gives not, it no attempt."

I am tempted to run the phrase "It loses something in the translation" through the process.


V/R
Shapley

[Nicole Marie]

Most online translation sites are a bunch of garbage. They translate word for word and most language is not structured this way. I'm learning Portuguese, my husband's family is there and I'm trying to learn more of the language so I can have deeper conversations with my family.

It was suggested to me to use the online translation services for help. All they do is a word for word translation and romantic languages are not set up this way. You will always loose the meaning in the translation. I'd love to know if anyone has a better idea then these sites?

[Shapley]

Nicole,

The site I used offered human translation for a fee. That's probably fine to traslate a letter or a technical manual, but a bit pricey for just a line or two. I think they charge a flat fee up to some number of lines, and then the price changes.

We used a translation company a number of years back for translating some technical brochures. I believe they did an acceptable job, but of course we had no way of verifying it or we wouldn't have needed them. Technical literature always proves a problem in translation, unless you find someone familiar with the industry to do the translation. One of my previous employers had me produce a "technish" manual so our employees understood the various terms we used, even though we all spoke English.

V/R
Shapley

V/R
Shapley

[jmfryar]

alta vista's babelfish (named for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's translator fishie that went in the ear - ickie!) isnt' bad...

I'll type the phrase in, translate it and then translate it back - if it comes back accurate, I use it...it's done great for Russian correspondence...

[barfle]

Ich weiß, was ich mag.
Sé de lo que tengo gusto.

[Marye]

Originally posted by barfle:
Ich weiß, was ich mag.
Sé de lo que tengo gusto.

LOL, I guess you do.

[Serenity]

Barfle:

"Se de lo que tengo gusto" sounds to me like "I know of what I have a taste for". Did you use Babelfish? (just curious).

It should read "Se lo que me gusta" (I know what I like).

[barfle]

Yeah, and no Latin.

[Angie Parkes]

"Se de lo que tengo gusto"

Gosh, and here I thought it meant "I like to tango heartily."

[barfle]

Is there any other way to tango?

[Serenity]

You can "tango in Paris".